GIS and Grid Computing Agenda Setting Workshop

Introduction to GIS and Grid Computing

Andy Turner MoSeS

GIS and Grid Computing Agenda Setting Workshop

Outline
What is GIS? What is special about Geospatial Information? UK e-Science Programme Grids and emerging e-Infrastructure Why GIS and GRID?

GIS and Grid Computing Agenda Setting Workshop

What is GIS?
Originally
Geographic Information System
Maps in computers Main concern 2D space + attributes Developed mainly since 1980

Key is that the data is spatially referenced to locations on Earths surface Modern concern 3D space + time + attributes
Geospatial

GIS and Grid Computing Agenda Setting Workshop

A system of hardware, software, data, people, organizations and institutional arrangements for collecting, storing, analyzing, and disseminating information about areas of the earth (Dueker and Kjerne, 1989)

GIS and Grid Computing Agenda Setting Workshop

Types of Data
Coverages
Raster (regularly spaced)
GeoTiff, netCDF

Vector (points, lines, regions)

Attributes attached Features
Multiple geometries, multiple attributes Can be grouped into Themes

GML

Many different sources

Remote sensing Digital maps Census and surveys

Much data is derived and much does not depict physical objects

GIS and Grid Computing Agenda Setting Workshop

Source: Bryan Lawrence Presentation on NERC Data Grid at Workshop on Grid Middleware and Geospatial Standards for Earth System Science Data, NeSC, Edinburgh, September 2005

GIS and Grid Computing Agenda Setting Workshop

GI Processing
Data cleaning
Readying data for analysis or integration with data from other sources
Projecting data into a common spatial framework

Exploring relationships
Scales Resolutions

Involves a series of (approximately 40) basic processes formed in fairly ad hoc ways
Process chains

Interactive Procedural Raster calculations are easily parallelised Computationally intensive?

GIS and Grid Computing Agenda Setting Workshop

GIS application development is addressing generic problems

Spatial and temporal semantics How to integrate information (from different sources) using spatial and temporal location when this is uncertain How to store, process and provide access to large volumes of information across networks How to take advantage of the data that exists to provide better solutions? How to improve data collection, organization and access for research

GIS and Grid Computing Agenda Setting Workshop

Internet GIS
A new distributed processing technology Web Map Servers (WMS) Web Feature Servers (WFS) Web Coverage Servers (WCS) Aided by standards
Data transfer formats Data access methods Organisations
Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) ISO TC/211 W3C

Google Earth

GIS and Grid Computing Agenda Setting Workshop

cd Serv ice Coherence StyledLayerDescriptor

config Selection and portrayal

WMS

GetMap

Feature Database config Object/relational mapping WFS GetFeature realize Filter GetFeatureInfo 0..*

FeatureType

config Axis mapping

DescribeFeatureType realize Cov erage

WCS GetCoverage

Domain

Source: Simon Cox Presentation on Architectures for Data Access Services at Workshop on Grid Middleware and Geospatial Standards for Earth System Science Data, NeSC, Edinburgh, September 2005

GIS and Grid Computing Agenda Setting Workshop

What is meant by e-Science? In the future, e-Science will refer to the large scale science that will increasingly be carried out through distributed global collaborations enabled by the Internet. Typically, a feature of such collaborative scientific enterprises is that they will require access to very large data collections, very large scale computing resources and high performance visualisation back to the individual user scientists. The Grid is an architecture proposed to bring all these issues together and make a reality of such a vision for e-Science. Ian Foster and Carl Kesselman, inventors of the Globus approach to the Grid define the Grid as an enabler for Virtual Organisations: An infrastructure that enables flexible, secure, coordinated resource sharing among dynamic collections of individuals, institutions and resources. It is important to recognize that resource in this context includes computational systems and data storage and specialized experimental facilities.

Source: http://www.rcuk.ac.uk/escience/

GIS and Grid Computing Agenda Setting Workshop

NeSC
10 Regional Centres 7 Centres of Excellence
WRG

7 other centres
NCeSS National Institute for Environemntal e-Science NGS

GIS and Grid Computing Agenda Setting Workshop

What are Grids?

Provide computational resources and a distributed computing infrastructure that supports flexible, secure, coordinated resource sharing and problem solving in dynamic, multi-institutional virtual organisations (Ghimire et. al., 2005) Grids: build virtual computers from resources available to collaborations that cross administrative domains (virtual organisations) (Mineter, 2005) e-infrastructure = networks + grids + supporting (people) services
In UK, the National Grid Service and Grid Operations Support Centre Europe-wide, EGEE (Mineter, 2005)

The Open Grid Services Architecture (OGSA) represents the evolution towards a Grid system architecture based on Web services concepts and technologies. (Ghimire et. al., 2005)
Sources: Mike Mineter (2005) Future Cities Workshop Presentation at the First International Conference on e-Social Science, September, Manchester Ghimire D.R, Simonis I, Wytzisk A (2005) Integration of GRID approaches into the Geographic Web Service Domain

GIS and Grid Computing Agenda Setting Workshop

Some Grid Components

Hardware
Computational and operational machines
Personal Computers Sensing/control equipment HPC

Authentication and Authorisation

Certification Allowance
Access to data Access to computational resource

Virtual File System

For storing data

Process management

GIS and Grid Computing Agenda Setting Workshop

Web Service from Grid perspective

A Web Service is programmable application logic accessible using standard Internet protocols Web service is any piece of code that can be made available over the Internet, so that other applications can invoke it and utilize its functionality Web Services Description Language (WSDL) is an XMLbased language for describing Web services and how to access them. Emerging XML and Web Service specifications is a big bag of worms

GIS and Grid Computing Agenda Setting Workshop

GIS and Grid Computing Agenda Setting Workshop

Allow Web and Grid communities to move forward on a common base separates service and stateful resource upon which service acts WS-Resource:
identity (WS-Addressing) lifetime (WS-ResourceLifetime) state/properties (WS-ResourceProperties)

Web Services Resource Framework (WSRF)

publish-subscribe mechanism for state changes (WSNotification)

GIS and Grid Computing Agenda Setting Workshop

Why GIS and Grids?

As a user the GI industry is well placed to demonstrate the potential of GRID
A mature web-services culture Functioning, widely used, reasonably OK interoperability data standards A process orientated environment A set of problems that need addressing An IT literate user base in academia and industry The sexiest data
Source: Phil James Geo-Processing Frameworks Issues and Opportunities Presentation at the Grid Middleware and GeoSpatial Standards Workshop, Edinburgh, September 2005

GIS and Grid Computing Agenda Setting Workshop

Source: Phil James Geo-Processing Frameworks Issues and Opportunities Presentation at the Grid Middleware and GeoSpatial Standards Workshop, Edinburgh, September 2005

GIS and Grid Computing Agenda Setting Workshop

Some Problems/Challenges
Range of application domains, lots of software providers and many institution involved
Agreement on standards
E.g. What do we expect from a projection service?

OGC

Data quality
Need for good meta data Need for standard formats

Developing Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDIs)

Need for education

Security and DRM issues How do OGC web services map into mainstream Web Services?

GIS and Grid Computing Agenda Setting Workshop

Important Organisations
Open Geospatial Consortium ISO W3C National Institute for Environmental eScience Open source community

GIS and Grid Computing Agenda Setting Workshop

Summary
GIS is maturing to support Earth Systems Science in 5D GIS has a mature web services culture GIS can benefit from Grid technology as good GIS software in some ways provides a Grid environment GIS has much to offer Grid computing and vice versa There can be confusion of terminology when experts in GIS and Grid computing meet Spatial Data Infrastructure is key to supporting many of the applications we want Work is ongoing at national and international levels? What are the special needs in terms of Grid GIS for eSocial Science?

GIS and Grid Computing Agenda Setting Workshop

Internet Link
Online Data Online Data

tape robot

Online Data

XML database BADC NDG Wrapper

XML database BODC NDG Wrapper

XML database Group NDG Wrapper

Satellite

Supercomputer

Research Group Data Sources

Wider Internet NERC Grid

Software Agent Grid User ESG (&other) Applications NDG Web Portal

Wider Internet
Internet User

Internet Link

XML database

Source Bryan Lawrence Presentation on NERC Data Grid at Workshop on Grid Middleware and Geospatial Standards for Earth System Science Data, NeSC, Edinburgh, September 2005

GIS and Grid Computing Agenda Setting Workshop

G
Geographical, Geographic, Geospatial, Grid

Information, Informatics, Integration, Intelligence

System, Science, Service

GIS and Grid Computing Agenda Setting Workshop

Acknowledgements
Some of these slides have used images ripped from the web